Friday, July 10, 2009

ELEPHANTMEN creators -- Richard Starkings, Moritat and John JG Roshell will be at Comicraft's usual spot in the Independent Publisher's Pavilion -- booth 2106, just across from DC Comics. Comicraft will be premiering the new Image Comics trade paperback DAMAGED GOODS collecting Marian Churchland's SOLD OUT issues of ELEPHANTMEN as well as copies of the new ELEPHANTMEN VOLUME 2 hardcover -- FATAL DISEASES. Moritat will be sketching on request alongside a number of special guests. Stop by the Comicraft booth to find out who! Plus -- free posters, buttons, fridge magnets and tattoos!

In this standalone tale, the Doctor and Donna attempt to broker a peace plan between two very hierarchical and pompous alien races, the Draconians and Ice Warriors. But their best efforts are derailed by someone who stands to gain from the continued conflict.

Diamond order code is JUN09 0969.

Synchronistically, right after wrapping up my introduction to COLD DAY IN HELL, those awfully nice chaps at IDW asked me if I could script a story for the Tenth Doctor and Donna from a plot by my good friend and all-round good egg, Gary Russell (Gary succeeded John Freeman as editor of DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE -- having worked for him as assistant editor for some time in the 90's -- and has worked in the DOCTOR WHO field ever since, writing, producing and directing audios for BIG FINISH and, more recently, script editing DOCTOR WHO, SARAH JANE ADVENTURES and TORCHWOOD for BBC WALES).

As noted in my introduction to the Panini collection, my time as editor of the strip started and ended in Hell. Simon Furman's COLD DAY IN HELL -- kicks off the volume, and my last strip, NEMESIS OF THE DALEKS, which I co-wrote as Richard Alan with John Tomlinson (Steve Alan) was set on a planet called Hell. Check out John Freeman's blog, DOWN THE TUBES for more on COLD DAY IN HELL.

Stranger still, the first strip in COLD DAY IN HELL features the Ice Warriors, and my story for IDW, COLD-BLOODED WAR, features... the Ice Warriors! And the Draconians. And Alpha Centauri, just for kicks.

Adrian Salmon's art on this issue is Just Beautiful! It was an unexpected pleasure to work with him. Ade's seemingly effortless storytelling and simple linework is amazing -- right up there with Paul Grist.

You can see more preview art from the issue on Chris Ryall's blog here.

A collection of seventh Doctor DOCTOR WHO stories I edited, and in some cases co-wrote under the name Richard Alan, and lettered under the pseudonym ZED, was published by Panini UK last month and became available at your LCBS earlier this month.

For the record, I co-wrote TIME AND TIDE, lettered by Tom Orzechowski (what's up with THAT?!) with SLEEZE BROTHERS co-creator John Carnell, and I co-plotted, uncredited, PLANET OF THE DEAD.

The last story I co-wrote for the Seventh Doctor, NEMESIS OF THE DALEKS, is being held over for the next volume, so that they can hang on to that snappy title, no doubt.

This fine tome features the first work (on PLANET OF THE DEAD) of my good friend Lee Sullivan, who is still drawing DOCTOR WHO strips (for BATTLES IN TIME) today. Check out his website here.

Also included in the collection is an introduction by Yours Truly detailing how the strip was nearly dropped from DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE altogether, and a series of interviews with the many creators featured in the book complied by John Freeman, who edited the strip -- and also designed and then edited the entire magazine! -- after my departure...

• Do you think the role of the mother in science fiction films is important and does it correlate to other genres?

RICH: Absolutely the mother is important in Science Fiction -- inasmuch as her presence (or absence!) almost always represents the Earth Mother, the nurturing influence without which no man, woman, or mankind can survive or grow.

In oh so many Science Fiction films, women are either dressed as men (ALIEN, TERMINATOR, 1984, OUTLAND, STAR TREK) or appear as provocatively dressed sex objects (BLADE RUNNER, FIFTH ELEMENT, SPECIES, STAR TREK, STAR WARS) and most of those movies are missing maternal figures. Science Fiction writers and movie makers seem to be suggesting that space, and science, are the provinces of men -- so women must dress and behave like men to participate... or undress to make the experience more pleasurable for men (LOGAN'S RUN, CLOCKWORK ORANGE, OUTLAND).

I think it's significant in the ALIEN series that Ripley progressively develops the qualities of a mother -- first as Newt's surrogate mother in ALIENS, then as the mother of a maturing alien in ALIEN3 and finally as the mother of the halfbreed and the understanding, nurturing companion of the android Call in RESURRECTION.

In many ways ALIEN is akin to the Frankenstein monster. Created by scientists, both the monster and the aliens behave monstrously without the warmth and balance of a caring mother -- they serve only the greedy purposes of the hungry, egocentric father, whose dependence on the intellect ultimately turns into fear of the very thing he has created, and death at its hands.

Ripley survives the ALIEN series and her survival in each movie follows her demonstrations of compassion and affection -- first for Jones, the cat in ALIEN, then for Newt in ALIENS, for ALL mankind in 3 and for the halfbreed and Call (and all mankind again) in RESURRECTION.

In a similar fashion, John Connor mothers the Terminator in T2, after his mother has become more manlike and machinelike, and the Terminator becomes the protector in 3 and SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES. I think mothering and the qualities of compassion are presented in Science Fiction as something of a lost art that has to be recovered. Roy Batty destroys his father in BLADE RUNNER and the compassion he demonstrates at the end of the movie triggers in Deckard the desire to pursue his relationship with Rachael no matter what.

• Many SF films don't feature a mother at all;, the boys follow in their father's footsteps --- is this simply because the sci~fi genre is a "Boy's Own adventure" or do you think there are ideological and narrative reasons why this should be so?

RICH: I think men have come to represent the intellect, the cold reason of science, rather than the warmth of nature and nurture which is attributed to the mother. I also subscribe to the whole HERO'S JOURNEY philosophy played out in STAR WARS -- it seems as if being orphaned is a requirement for Joseph Campbell's archetypal hero. Loss of the parent frees the hero and cuts off his options. He has to discover the balance between the compassion of the mother and the intellectual reasoning of the father on his on terms through his own experience.

• In ELEPHANTMEN, the mothers are seen as reproductive machines and then disposed of -- is there no place for the mother in the world of MAPPO, where Nikken wants to be both "father and mother"?

RICH: MAPPO's disposal of the mothers creates the instant hero archetype! Hip, Ebony and Horn are all seeking in themselves qualities that were never demonstrated by their father figures (Nikken and the architects of MAPPO). I see elements of Ripley's struggle with the Alien in WAR TOYS -- only in my story the roles are reversed; Hip and Horn regard Yvette as the Alien and Hip's demonstrations of compassion in the course of the story indicate that he is emerging from the mindset of the cold scientific father and discovering the nurturing qualities of the mother. It's interesting to me that I subconsciously chose to illustrate Hip's compassion in a scene wherein he saves a mother and child.